Now in this parable Jesus is teaching about the importance of being rich towards God.

Transcription

1 We left Paul in Corinth the last time we were together. And we saw that whatever Corinth was like, Paul was terribly afraid of going there and preaching. And so God showed up in a vision and assured Paul that everything was going to fine but he needs to stop being afraid. And so with the promise from God, Paul continued preaching in Corinth but as we are about to read, his trials are far from over. There was a policeman in a police helicopter who spotted a speeding motorist on the M6 and so he radioed his fellow officer on the ground. His friend eventually caught the speeding car and begun to fill out the forms in order to fine the man for speeding. The car driver asked, how on earth did you know I was speeding? the police man didn t say anything but pointed to the sky. The driver just moaned and said, Aw, you mean even He s turned against me too. Now if there was ever a saint who thought that everyone was turning against him, it would have been the apostle Paul. We ve already read about all the trials and tribulations he went through and what Luke tells us next in Acts 18, should not come as a surprise to us. Acts 18:12-18 While Gallio was proconsul of Achaia, the Jews made a united attack on Paul and brought him into court. This man," they charged, "is persuading the people to worship God in ways contrary to the law." Just as Paul was about to speak, Gallio said to the Jews, "If you Jews were making a complaint about some misdemeanour or serious crime, it would be reasonable for me to listen to you. But since it involves questions about words and names and your own law-settle the matter yourselves. I will not be a judge of such things." So he had them ejected from the court. Then they all turned on Sosthenes the synagogue ruler and beat him in front of the court. But Gallio showed no concern whatever. Paul stayed on in Corinth for some time. Then he left the brothers and sailed for Syria, accompanied by Priscilla and Aquila. Before he sailed, he had his hair cut off at Cenchrea because of a vow he had taken. Luke tells us that the Jews brought Paul to the judgment seat before Gallio when he was proconsul of Achaia. And they accused Paul of preaching contrary to Moses' law, but Gallio drove them out without trying the case because it did not have anything to do with Roman law. And so some of the Greeks seized Sosthenes, the new ruler of the synagogue, and beat him up before Gallio's judgment seat without the proconsul taking any notice. But despite all those beatings and difficult times for Paul he continued to work in Corinth for some time before leaving the brethren and sailing for Syria with Priscilla and Aquila. You see loved ones like we said last time fear does a couple of things to a person. It can leave you powerless and silent but if you trust God that fear will be driven from your mind because you know that God won t allow anything to happen that you can t handle. Now Luke also tells us that Paul took a vow in Cenchrea and had his hair cut off. Why? Well it probably relates to a form of what the Bible calls the Nazirite vow as we find it in Numbers 6:1-21. Now this vow was practiced among the early Christians and we re going to read about it again in Acts 21 when we get there. But why did Paul take this vow and shave his head? Well it was offered in gratefulness for deliverance from danger. Now remember that Paul was afraid, terribly afraid and back in Acts 18:9+10, Luke tells us that One night the Lord spoke to Paul in a vision: "Do not be afraid; keep on speaking, do not be silent. For I am with you, and no one is going to attack and harm you, because I have many people in this city." Now Paul trusted God to be with him and when God delivered him from all the events of Corinth, Paul was grateful. And he expressed that gratefulness to God by making a vow which consisted of shaving off his hair. Now should we be practicing this vow today? Well what we need to understand is that Paul s expression of his gratitude to God was done in a way in which was culturally acceptable for him. 1

2 So in that sense we shouldn t practice this expression of gratefulness but we should be a thankful people. I m not saying that we should go out and shave our heads but what we should be doing is expressing our gratefulness to God every time He delivers us from danger. Now I don t know about you but I like to keep little reminders of places I have been too, I like to take photos of people I have met and events which I have been apart of. And every now and then I will take them out and remember how good that time was. But let me ask you, do you keep things which remind you of bad times? Maybe your husband or wife walked out on you for another man or woman and you just can t bear to look at the old photos because it brings back so much hurt. Maybe you don t like the police because you or a family member had been falsely accused for something you didn t do and every time you see them it brings back memories of all those false accusations. Nobody likes to remember the bad things which happened in their lives because it brings back so much pain and anxiety. But when God delivered His people out of the hands of the Egyptians that is exactly what He wanted them to remember. Now remember that the Passover was first introduced during the Israelites slavery in Egypt. It was the tenth plague which involved the death of the first-born Egyptians both men and cattle, which also included Pharaoh s very own son. And according to Exodus 12, a year-old male lamb or goat, without blemish was to be slain on the 14th day of the first month of the Hebrew religious year, between the evenings according to Exodus 12:6. Now according to Josephus in the first century the lamb was killed between 3 and 5 p.m. Exodus 12:46 tells us that none of its bones was to be broken. The blood was to be smeared on the doorposts and lintel of every Israelite home, and the Lord promised in Exodus 12:13, When I see the blood, I will pass over you. Now God never wanted His people to forget those days of torture and slavery. In fact He says to His people in Exodus 12:24-27 "Obey these instructions as a lasting ordinance for you and your descendants. When you enter the land that the Lord will give you as he promised, observe this ceremony. And when your children ask you, `What does this ceremony mean to you?' then tell them, `It is the Passover sacrifice to the Lord, who passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt and spared our homes when he struck down the Egyptians.'" Yes the Passover was to remind them of their deliverance from Egypt but it was also a reminder of a painful memory which most of them would gladly try to forget. God delivered them but every time they partook of the Passover celebrations they expressed their gratitude for that deliverance. And when we turn our attentions to the New Testament, we begin to understand that the Passover lamb was a prophetic picture of the Lord Jesus and his atoning death. The Saviour was introduced by John the Baptiser as the lamb of God in John 1:29. Paul stated that our Passover lamb is Christ in 1 Corinthians 5:7. And we know from 1 Peter 1:19 and 1 Peter 2:22 that Jesus was without blemish, in other words without sin. John tells us in John 19:31-33 that during the crucifixion not one of Jesus bones was broken. And according to Matthew 27:46 Jesus died at 3 o clock in the afternoon. And his blood became an offering for sin according to Romans 3:25. But His blood wasn t just shed for the chosen few it was shed for everyone who accepts it by obedience to his will according to Hebrews 5:9. And it s that very same blood in which we are cleansed by his blood according to Hebrews 9:14. But that only happens when we receive the good news and submit to Him in the waters of baptism according to Ephesians 5:26. 2

3 Now I went through all that to say this, God wants us to remember bad times. He wants us to remember what He went through on Calvary for us. He wants us to open up the Bible and be reminded of why He had to die in the first place. He wants us to remember it is because of our sin which He chose to go to the cross. That s why we celebrate the Lord s Supper every week; He wants us never to forget the pain and agony and the suffering He went through for us. And just like Paul did when He took that vow and expressed his gratitude to God for delivering from the murderous hands in Corinth. We too should be partaking of the Lord s Supper every week as a way of showing our gratitude to God for delivering us from our sin. Paul knew what he was taking about when he wrote in Colossians 1:13-14 For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. The King James Version says, Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son. We ve all been delivered, we ve all been rescued, and so Paul after showing his gratitude to God Paul moves away from Corinth and returns to Antioch. Acts 18:19-23 They arrived at Ephesus, where Paul left Priscilla and Aquila. He himself went into the synagogue and reasoned with the Jews. When they asked him to spend more time with them, he declined. But as he left, he promised, "I will come back if it is God's will." Then he set sail from Ephesus. When he landed at Caesarea, he went up and greeted the church and then went down to Antioch. After spending some time in Antioch, Paul set out from there and travelled from place to place throughout the region of Galatia and Phrygia, strengthening all the disciples. It seems from our text that Paul spent a short time preaching in the synagogue in Ephesus. And he promised to return if it was God's will and so left Priscilla and Aquila and sailed on to Caesarea. He made a quick trip to Jerusalem and then went to Antioch and after some time, he went on to strengthen the churches in Galatia and Phrygia. Now let me say a few words about Paul s choice of words here. Walter Knight told of an old Scottish woman who went from home to home across the countryside selling thread, buttons, and shoestrings. When she came to an unmarked crossroad, she would toss a stick into the air and go in the direction the stick pointed when it landed. One day, however, she was seen tossing the stick up several times. "Why do you toss the stick more than once?" someone asked. "Because," replied the woman, "it keeps pointing to the left, and I want to take the road on the right." She then dutifully kept throwing the stick into the air until it pointed the way she wanted to go! You see loved ones when Paul said to the Ephesians, If it is God s will I will return ; he understood who was directing His life. Too many times I hear Christians making directions for themselves in life because that is the way they are determined to go. Too many times I hear Christians making plans without even considering if this is God s will for them or not. Jesus tells a parable about that attitude in Luke 12:16-21 where He says, "The ground of a certain rich man produced a good crop. He thought to himself, `What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.' "Then he said, `This is what I'll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I'll say to myself, "You have plenty of good things laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry." But God said to him, `You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?' "This is how it will be with anyone who stores up things for himself but is not rich toward God." Now in this parable Jesus is teaching about the importance of being rich towards God. 3

4 But He is also teaching about the dangers of making plans without God. James tells us basically the same thing over in James 4:13-15 where he says, Now listen, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money." Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, "If it is the Lord's will, we will live and do this or that." Love ones all the future plans we have as a congregation. All the personal future plans you may have for your life. Every decision, big or small we make, needs to be made with the question, If this God s will? Because like Paul we need to remind ourselves of whom exactly it is, that is directing our lives. Are we going to throw sticks in the air until we get where we want to go? Or are we prayerfully going to allow God to guide us and just accept the fact that God may not want us to go in that direction. Everything we do as Christians should be directed by the will of God. So Paul is off encouraging the churches elsewhere but Luke goes on and introduces us to a man named Apollos. Acts 18:24-28 Meanwhile a Jew named Apollos, a native of Alexandria, came to Ephesus. He was a learned man, with a thorough knowledge of the Scriptures. He had been instructed in the way of the Lord, and he spoke with great fervour and taught about Jesus accurately, though he knew only the baptism of John. He began to speak boldly in the synagogue. When Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they invited him to their home and explained to him the way of God more adequately. When Apollos wanted to go to Achaia, the brothers encouraged him and wrote to the disciples there to welcome him. On arriving, he was a great help to those who by grace had believed. For he vigorously refuted the Jews in public debate, proving from the Scriptures that Jesus was the Christ. Luke tells us that at Ephesus, an Alexandrian Jew named Apollos, who was an eloquent speaker, began to preach about Jesus. And he tells us that Apollos was knowledgeable in the scriptures and very accurate in his teachings about Jesus. But and this is important, Luke says that Apollos only knew about John's baptism. Now we re going to say a few words about this in a moment but meanwhile Apollos began to boldly preach in the synagogue. And apparently, Priscilla and Aquila heard him there and recognized his inadequate understanding of baptism, so they took him aside privately to more fully instruct him in the ways of the Lord. Apollos then decided to go into Achaia and the brethren wrote him a letter of recommendation. And it was in Achaia, that he was able to give great assistance to the brethren through using powerful arguments from God's word to show Jesus was the Christ. Now Apollos serves as a good example of a preacher and teacher of the Word of God who means well and is very sincere but has it wrong. In Acts 18: 25 Luke says that, He had been instructed in the way of the Lord, and he spoke with great fervour and taught about Jesus accurately, though he knew only the baptism of John. But when Apollos travelled to Ephesus, and began speaking boldly in the synagogue, Aquila and Priscilla heard him and realized that he still was advocating the baptism of John the Baptist as it looked forward to the coming of Christ. Now obviously Aquila and Priscilla knew that John s baptism no longer was valid because it has been supplanted by the baptism commemorating Christ s death and burial. Yes Apollos was sincere, but he was sincerely wrong. That s why Aquila and Priscilla invited him to their home and explained to him the way of God more adequately. 4

5 And when his error was pointed out, he corrected it and subsequently continued with his preaching and teaching about Christ, apparently with much success, since, upon his arrival in Achaia. Loved ones Apollos was a good teacher but nevertheless, he taught error. When he was shown his mistake he possessed an attitude of humility, and a love for the Truth, that caused him to make the necessary correction. And that s a wonderful example for all who would be teachers of God s Word. Because many of us who teach have found ourselves in a similar situation to that of Apollos. In our sincere attempt to spread the Gospel or defend the faith, we unintentionally made a mistake, and taught error. When our mistake was made known to us, we corrected it, learned from it, and determined not to repeat it. Now does the fact that we taught an error necessarily make us a false teacher? No I don t believe it does. As one writer says, a person receives a label when a certain behaviour becomes characteristic of him. A preacher, for example, is one who preaches; a teacher is one who teaches; a criminal is one who commits crime. But not everyone who has ever delivered a sermon deserves to be called a preacher; not everyone who has ever violated a traffic law deserves to be called a criminal. Regardless of its content, a label should be reserved for those distinguished by the corresponding behaviour. Apollos wasn t a false teacher because when he learned of his mistake he changed his teachings accordingly. And although the text doesn t tell us about his baptism into Christ, we know it must have happened because Luke tells us about another group of people in Ephesus who had only received John s baptism in the very next chapter. Luke tells us in Acts 19:1-5 While Apollos was at Corinth; Paul took the road through the interior and arrived at Ephesus. There he found some disciples and asked them, "Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed? They answered, "No, we have not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit." So Paul asked, "Then what baptism did you receive?" "John's baptism," they replied. Paul said, "John's baptism was a baptism of repentance. He told the people to believe in the one coming after him, that is, in Jesus." On hearing this, they were baptized into the name of the Lord Jesus. Now I m not going to say too much about this text because we will deal with it next time. But just before we finish I want to ask you, if you came to the realization that you believed the wrong thing for many years, what would you do? Because it takes courage to do what Apollos did but loved ones it could be the most courageous decision you re ever made in your life. Now I don t want to frighten people but people s souls are going to be lost forever because they were sincere in their beliefs but sincerely wrong. The apostle Paul sincerely believed that killing Christians was God s will, but he was sincerely wrong. When I was younger I sincerely believed that God would accept everyone into heaven as long as they were good, I was sincerely wrong. There are some who sincerely teach once saved always saved, they are sincerely wrong. Some teach that just faith in God is all you need to please God but again they are sincerely wrong. Loved ones there is no excuse today for not knowing what God s will is for people. It s very simple, Peter tells us in 2 Peter 3:9, The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance. God wants everyone to be saved, that s His will for all of mankind. But we need to be doubly sure about what we believe about God and His will for our lives by reading His word for ourselves. 5

6 Let me challenge you today to double check with the Scriptures about what you believe because it s one thing being sincere but another to be sincerely wrong. If after reading this you want to know more about God s will for you or if this sermon has raised other questions in your thoughts then please just contact me and I will get back to you as soon as possible. God bless and thanks for taking the time to grow in your understanding of God s Word. 6